4-year-old boy struck by car in Port Orange

The 4-year-old boy was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach with a broken leg, police said.

LYDA LONGASTAFF WRITER

A small child was struck by a car on Ridgewood Avenue in Port Orange, police said, after his mother failed to realize he had vanished from their motel room Friday morning.

The 4-year-old boy was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach with a broken leg, police said, and his mother, Kayla Geraty, 22, was charged with child neglect, said Port Orange Assistant Police Chief Wayne Miller.

Miller said the youngster was running in and out of the roadway on the west side of Ridgewood Avenue about 9 a.m. while his mother was inside Room 7 of the Dusk to Dawn motel at Ridgewood and Fox Place.

At one point, the child ran east across Ridgewood as motorist Brandon Fanizzi, 18, was heading south in a 1990 Jaguar, Miller said.

Fanizzi tried to swerve to avoid hitting the boy but the child bolted in front of the car and Fanizzi could not stop, Miller said.

When police questioned Geraty, she said she didn't even know her son had left the room, Miller said.

Miller said the state's Department of Children and Families was contacted and told about the incident.

Fanizzi, of South Daytona, was not charged, Miller said.

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